Amit Trivedi

Amit Trivedi was born in Bandra, Mumbai. His family originated from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. During his school years, he developed an interest in electronic musical instruments.^[4]

While in college, Trivedi started a band known as "Om the Fusion Band" alongside Amartya Bobo Rahut, Shriram Iyer, and fellow members Ram and Vish.^[5] The group performed at local gigs and small shows, eventually releasing an album through Times Music.^[6] Trivedi also pursued independent projects, composing for theatre (Hindi and Gujarati plays), background music for television shows, programming for Marathi films, live performances and dandiya shows. He also composed advertising jingles for brands such as McDonald's and Airtel.^[7]

Upon Kashyap's recommendation, Trivedi was brought in for Raj Kumar Gupta's directorial venture Aamir. Trivedi and Gupta worked on aligning the soundtrack with the film narrative, which garnered positive critical attention.^[8]

He worked on the soundtrack of Dev.D (2009), which he later described as a turning point in his career.^[9]

He was awarded both the Filmfare R. D. Burman Award for New Music Talent and the Best Background Score at the 55th Filmfare Awards, in addition to his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director,^[10] before receiving the National Film Award for Best Music Direction. Trivedi wrote the score for Wake Up Sid (2009), and one of his compositions, "Iktara", was also included in the soundtrack.

In 2009, Anshu Sharma offered Trivedi the opportunity to compose the team anthem "Game for More" for Royal Challengers Bangalore, a team owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya. Trivedi wrote the title track for the reality show Big Switch aired on UTV Bindaas. He also provided the music and background score Aisha (2010), providing vocals for two songs, "Suno Aisha" and "Sham". He composed the songs and score for Ishaqzaade (2012) and Lootera (2013), which earned him his second and third nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, and the soundtrack for Vikas Bahl's highly acclaimed Queen (2014), which earned him his fourth nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director.

He earned three consecutive nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for his diverse compositions in Udta Punjab (2016), Secret Superstar (2017), and Manmarziyaan (2018).

He won Best Song for "Naina Da Kya Kasoor" at the News18 Reel Movie Awards from Andhadhun (2018). He also sang "Laila Laila" for the film. In 2019, Power Brands honored him with the Best7 Music Director of the Year award for Andhadhun at the Bollywood Film Journalists Awards (BFJA).^[11]

Trivedi again earned two consecutive nominations for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for his compositions in Haseen Dillruba (2021) and Uunchai (2022).

Trivedi composed the official anthem of the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup, with lyrics by Kausar Munir and vocals by Sharvi Yadav and Anand Bhaskar.^[12]

He has made TV appearances for various shows on MTV.^[13][14] Additionally, he composed the title track for the television show Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi, hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.^[15] He also composed music for the 2018 film Kedarnath, produced by RSVP Movies and Guy in The Sky Pictures.

Trivedi has continued to work on independent music releases under his label "AT Azaad".^[16]

Amit Trivedi has faced allegations of plagiarism twice in his career.^[17] He was first accused of copying the background score for the trailer of Lootera from Rachel Portman's track "We Had Today" from the One Day (2011) soundtrack.^[18] Lootera's director Vikramaditya Motwane denied these claims stating, "The theme is sourced from a small musical bit composed by Amit Trivedi for a song that's in the film, which we decided to expand and turn into a full fledged theme for the trailer. Unfortunately, it ends up sounding a lot like One Day but I assure you that it's coincidental".^[19]

In 2015, he was accused again for his composition of the ballad "Nazdeekiyan" for Dharma Productions' Shandaar (2015), which was similar to popular alternative-rock band Coldplay's "Oceans" from their sixth studio album Ghost Stories (2014). Addressing the allegations in an interview with Deccan Chronicle, Trivedi said: "I swear on my music, I didn’t copy it at all. I will quit music if I would ever do plagiarism. There are seven music notes, which are used in the entire world. It’s purely a coincidence that my song is similar to this one. I don’t even know about this song. I will surely listen to Coldplay-Oceans after this".^[20]